Re web Vs CLI: I think most browsers have a readability mode or something where you can click a button and just the article body is retained; without CSS format

Re web Vs CLI: I think most browsers have a readability mode or something where you can click a button and just the article body is retained; without CSS formatting and stuff. But yes you're right, accessibility is a really big problem with the web. There are screen readers but some pages even break those :( at least with the CLI, there is no real need to add colour beyond vanity (and i have no issue with it being used for vanities sake either, just so long as it doesnt render the text unreadable on my term) Re CLIs should be more graphical. I both agree and disagree. The issue with user input and mistakes etc is more down to the tooling and/or user experience than the CLI itself. This is actually why I'm writing my own shell at the moment. I'm trying to address some of the discoverability issues that traditional shells have. A bit like Fish tries to do except mine is more programmer orientated. I do actually think modern terminals would benefit from supporting richer content but I really don't think that should be at the cost of breaking the basics we come to expect (tools can be pipelined, shells can be customised, etc). I think if the web has taught us anything, it's that developers cannot be trusted with UIs. I know that sounds harsh but every webpage is themed differently and on the whole it's a bit of a UX nightmare. Where as CLI tools need to work homogeneously together. Coloured output breaks this because many developers (particularly the nodejs ones it seems) forget to check if the tool is outputting to a TTY or not. This matters because it prevents the user from doing the following without writing a load of crap escape sequences that won't render in your text editor: todo list | grep urgent > urgent.txt This is a point I think some of the more recent converters to the CLI miss. They view their tool as an application like a webpage or desktop GUI where as CLI tools frequently need to be used like Lego brick that connect to a bigger build. (Maybe I'm being a bit unfair here and the stuff I've seen posted on HN in recent months isn't representative of the wider scene?) But in any case, even with the arguements of accessibility aside, my personal preference would be developers avoided using colour until they've learned how to dynamically detect the appropriate times to use it.